Grade 10 students stranded for the second day near Manyatta Primary School in Kisumu on January 20, 2026, after an alleged well-wisher reportedly duped them into waiting.
I always believed that the league system in Kenya, where schools were ranked based on performance is built on fantasy. It is one of the most unfair league systems. To ask schools in Kenya to compete is like telling sprinter Usain Bolt to take on a tortoise. Even in retirement, the Jamaican men’s 100 metres world record holder would still beat the tortoise in his sleep.
The tortoise in this case are public schools in Kenya that have no infrastructure or structures to help children excel in education. Let alone compete with well-established schools.
Many children in rural schools access education under difficult circumstances. Some are forced to wade through crocodile-infested waters to reach school. Other learners can hardly attend school due to long-standing tribal conflict in areas such as the Rift Valley. Religious intolerance, coupled with terrorism, have undermined the growth of education in Northern Kenya.
The government is fully aware of the challenges that a big number of learners face in a bid to get an education. To praise certain schools for excelling in national examinations, and holding on to a league system that does not reflect the true standard of education in Kenya, is a big social injustice against children in poorer areas. The education system in Kenya has completely gone rogue, and so have school managers.
The financial pressure on parents is too high. There are hidden fees, which vary from school to school depending on the degree of corruption. Parents spend thousands of shillings on expensive school uniforms. It is understandable that school uniforms are a basic requirement, but this has become a cash cow for headteachers, select shops and corrupt education officials.
Expensive school uniform
A bright child losing out on education because a parent cannot afford expensive school uniforms is simply wrong and unfair. Going by the situation in public schools in Kenya, the government is eating its own children.
The situation went from bad to worse on the day the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) and bursaries were put in the hands of politicians, who cannot be trusted to be the custodians of the future of the children of Kenya. Instead of being used for the intended purpose, the money is used for political games.
If some of the NG-CDF cash was used prudently to build schools and fund the education of needy learners, then, no Kenyan child would be left behind. We won’t have the chaos in the education system that we are seeing now, with more than 800,000 children failing to report to school in time due to lack of fees!
Leaders complain about lack of money for essential programmes such as the free education, yet they can find billions of shillings to renovate a fully functioning State House, allocate cash for mortgages and private health insurance for Members of Parliament, paid for by public funds. The cost of making one Kenyan politician comfortable is enough to fund a school in a constituency and pay teachers well.
On top of that, Kenyan politicians are paid more than most of their counterparts globally, yet we don’t see the value when it comes to development. Schools, and indeed public education in Kenya, are sub-standard in many parts of the country. After 60 plus years of independence, there are children who are still studying under trees or in shanty-like structures that pass for schools. And leaders have the audacity to visit such schools in helicopters. Are they going to the schools to inspect progress or to laugh at the poor?
Heavily taxed
It is unfortunate that parents have been taxed heavily by successive regimes that fail in their duty of caring about Kenyan children’s education. Free education is not a privilege, but a right for every child in Kenya. Taxpayers are funding private education for politicians’ children while their own have no guarantee.
Kenyan politicians never fail to share news of how well their children are doing in schools and colleges. But they never show what they have done with the education funds in their hands meant for public schools. Kenyans are not begging for free education for their children. They are demanding it because their children have earned it via tax-paying parents.
If public education has been budgeted for, then it should be delivered to every child in Kenya. Corruption in education is theft of children’s future and rights.
Education funds are not meant for embezzlement, but for building a bright future for every child, and, consequently, that of the country.
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Ms Guyo is a legal researcher, [email protected], @kdiguyo
